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What is good to say to someone who believes in God but not the Bible because mere men wrote it? An analogy or example would help.
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39 comments
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Do they believe in science textbooks that are written by “mere” men? Were those scientists in any way inspired by God to write truth?…in which case it would not be shown to be false at some future point…
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If that’s their contention, then they should follow their logic and refuse to believe ANY literature on Earth is correct, including their own.
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One of these four articles should have something you can use.
https://www.oca.org/orthodoxy/the-orthodox-faith/doctrine-scripture/the-bible
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My experience is that often people are just turned off by religion. It’s a bad word. Hipsters are trending “I’m spiritual not religious” rhetoric and I’m not too far from that myself to be honest.
But at the end of the day, that’s cherry picking the Bible. -
I would begin by telling you that the Bible is good for inspiration and teaching.
2nd Timothy 3
[16] All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
[17] That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.The first five books of the Bible were written by Moses with the instruction of God for example.
Many books in the NT were written by Apostle Paul who was blinded by God, and recieved his sight again 3 days later.
When you say that these books were written by “mere” men; yes, that WAS the case but God chose them for a special purpose, which makes them more than “mere” men to us, yet still humbled by God.
They may have scribed the words, but those words, were ordained by God, as the verses indicate.
I hope this helps. Blessed Be!
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Genesis 1:1
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.God is the sovereign creator and eternal ruler of all things and beings that exist, whether in the physical universe or in the spiritual realm (Heaven). Not only is God the creator and ruler of the things and beings within those two realms, but He is also the creator of the realms themselves. God created the physical universe, and before He acted in this creation, the universe did not exist. Likewise God did with the spiritual realm.
Other than creation itself, God is revealed in several ways, including theological correlates, conscience, and special revelation (the Bible, and prophets). Most importantly though, God is revealed in Jesus Christ, who is the Son of God.
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“Read it, then get back with me”
It’s just an excuse, I’ve said the same thing in the past. And boy was I wrong! -
Which God do they believe in? What do they know about this God? How have they know about this God?
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The question is what God does that person believe? There are many gods…
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The Bible is composed of 66 books by 40 different writers over 1,500 years, yet it has one consistent story line running all the way through, and it has just one ultimate author — God.
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Most people who say they don’t believe the bible never read it in it’s entirety
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I asked my dad when I was little how could I trust the Bible. And he told me that I have to trust the God would keep His word pure. I don’t trust men but I do trust God. So I trust that the Bible is true because I believe God will protect it
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Jesus Christ Himself confirmed the validity of the bible. He cited from 14 books of the Old Testament in His teachings. He confirms that all the sections of the Old Testament (the law of Moses, the Books of the Prophets, and the Psalms) all prophesied about Him.
There is only One God and to believe in Him is to believe in His Son. If you believe in His Son then you believe what His Son told us to be true. Otherwise, you would be calling Christ a liar.
In short, if this person believes in THE God and not just A god: they have to believe in the validity of scripture. Otherwise, they deny Christ Jesus who is the Word made flesh.
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Faith comes from hearing and hearing comes from the word of God
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Your friend seems to have an issue with the idea of the supernatural. If that’s true, ask him to take a really good look at creation. Every time I used to disbelieve something about God’s ability I was reminded of how intricately crafted we are, the whole universe is. If God can do this, how can we doubt His power to do anything, to use and direct anyone, to His will? These writers were not just your average Joe off the street either, God had already evidenced His power and their faith, they were chosen by an almighty, all powerful, stunningly supernatural creator.
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Ask them if they believe that we should treat each other as we would have others treat us. Ask them if it is possible to conceive of the golden rule being false. Obviously the principle itself is universal
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Then this person can’t trust anything. cuz everthing you didn’t witness was written by man
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That’s usually a wrong perception of what the Bible is. It is God’s book about man not man’s book about God.
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Yell them they are correct,Holy men of God wrote as they were inspired by the Holy Spirit
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2 Peter 1:21 KJV
[21] For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man:
?but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
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The Holy Bible is THE ONLY book outlawed under penalty of death in Muslim and dictatorship run countries…and it is the only Book that has been proven to be 100% accurate in prophecy spanning thousands of years
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From: Essentials of new life.
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It’s not the words of mere men and a searching heart with a decent mind should be able to tell that. Reading the Gospel of John works for a lot of people.
That said, there is overwhelming and irrefutable evidence that the Bible is not the words of mere men, for anyone that authentically needs evidence and can treat evidence responsibly. Some places to start for that are Evidence That Demands A Verdict 1&2, Mere Christianity, Chesterton’s Orthodoxy, and Russell Humphreys’ 1984 paper predicting all Sol-system magnetic fields from a verse in 2 Peter.
https://creationresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/crsq-1984-volume-21-number-3.pdf
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How many times has God used fallable people to accomplish His perfect will no matter their intent?
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Is the Bible the word of God?
The answer to this question will not only determine how we view the Bible and its importance to our lives, but also it will ultimately have an eternal impact on us. If the Bible is truly God’s Word, then we should cherish it, study it, obey it, and fully trust it. If the Bible is the Word of God, then to dismiss it is to dismiss God Himself.
The fact that God gave us the Bible is an evidence and illustration of His love for us. The term “revelation” simply means that God communicated to mankind what He is like and how we can have a right relationship with Him. These are things that we could not have known had God not divinely revealed them to us in the Bible. Although God’s revelation of Himself in the Bible was given progressively over approximately 1500 years, it has always contained everything man needs to know about God in order to have a right relationship with Him. If the Bible is truly the Word of God, then it is the final authority for all matters of faith, religious practice, and morals.The question we must ask ourselves is how can we know that the Bible is the Word of God and not just a good book? What is unique about the Bible that sets it apart from all other religious books ever written? Is there any evidence that the Bible is truly God’s Word? These types of questions must be seriously examined if we are to determine the validity of the Bible’s claim to be the very Word of God, divinely inspired, and totally sufficient for all matters of faith and practice. There can be no doubt that the Bible does claim to be the very Word of God. This is clearly seen in Paul’s commendation to Timothy: “… from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:15-17).
There are both internal and external evidences that the Bible is truly God’s Word. The internal evidences are those things within the Bible that testify of its divine origin. One of the first internal evidences that the Bible is truly God’s Word is seen in its unity. Even though it is really sixty-six individual books, written on three continents, in three different languages, over a period of approximately 1500 years, by more than 40 authors who came from many walks of life, the Bible remains one unified book from beginning to end without contradiction. This unity is unique from all other books and is evidence of the divine origin of the words which God moved men to record.
Another of the internal evidences that indicates the Bible is truly God’s Word is the prophecies contained within its pages. The Bible contains hundreds of detailed prophecies relating to the future of individual nations including Israel, certain cities, and mankind. Other prophecies concern the coming of One who would be the Messiah, the Savior of all who would believe in Him. Unlike the prophecies found in other religious books or those by men such as Nostradamus, biblical prophecies are extremely detailed. There are over three hundred prophecies concerning Jesus Christ in the Old Testament. Not only was it foretold where He would be born and His lineage, but also how He would die and that He would rise again. There simply is no logical way to explain the fulfilled prophecies in the Bible other than by divine origin. There is no other religious book with the extent or type of predictive prophecy that the Bible contains.
A third internal evidence of the divine origin of the Bible is its unique authority and power. While this evidence is more subjective than the first two, it is no less a powerful testimony of the divine origin of the Bible. The Bible’s authority is unlike any other book ever written. This authority and power are best seen in the way countless lives have been transformed by the supernatural power of God’s Word. Drug addicts have been cured by it, homosexuals set free by it, derelicts and deadbeats transformed by it, hardened criminals reformed by it, sinners rebuked by it, and hate turned to love by it. The Bible does possess a dynamic and transforming power that is only possible because it is truly God’s Word.
There are also external evidences that indicate the Bible is truly the Word of God. One is the historicity of the Bible. Because the Bible details historical events, its truthfulness and accuracy are subject to verification like any other historical document. Through both archaeological evidences and other writings, the historical accounts of the Bible have been proven time and time again to be accurate and true. In fact, all the archaeological and manuscript evidence supporting the Bible makes it the best-documented book from the ancient world. The fact that the Bible accurately and truthfully records historically verifiable events is a great indication of its truthfulness when dealing with religious subjects and doctrines and helps substantiate its claim to be the very Word of God.
Another external evidence that the Bible is truly God’s Word is the integrity of its human authors. As mentioned earlier, God used men from many walks of life to record His words. In studying the lives of these men, we find them to be honest and sincere. The fact that they were willing to die often excruciating deaths for what they believed testifies that these ordinary yet honest men truly believed God had spoken to them. The men who wrote the New Testament and many hundreds of other believers (1 Corinthians 15:6) knew the truth of their message because they had seen and spent time with Jesus Christ after He had risen from the dead. Seeing the risen Christ had a tremendous impact on them. They went from hiding in fear to being willing to die for the message God had revealed to them. Their lives and deaths testify to the fact that the Bible truly is God’s Word.
A final external evidence that the Bible is truly God’s Word is the indestructibility of the Bible. Because of its importance and its claim to be the very Word of God, the Bible has suffered more vicious attacks and attempts to destroy it than any other book in history. From early Roman Emperors like Diocletian, through communist dictators and on to modern-day atheists and agnostics, the Bible has withstood and outlasted all of its attackers and is still today the most widely published book in the world.
Throughout time, skeptics have regarded the Bible as mythological, but archeology has confirmed it as historical. Opponents have attacked its teaching as primitive and outdated, but its moral and legal concepts and teachings have had a positive influence on societies and cultures throughout the world. It continues to be attacked by pseudo-science, psychology, and political movements, yet it remains just as true and relevant today as it was when it was first written. It is a book that has transformed countless lives and cultures throughout the last 2000 years. No matter how its opponents try to attack, destroy, or discredit it, the Bible remains; its veracity and impact on lives is unmistakable. The accuracy which has been preserved despite every attempt to corrupt, attack, or destroy it is clear testimony to the fact that the Bible is truly God’s Word and is supernaturally protected by Him. It should not surprise us that, no matter how the Bible is attacked, it always comes out unchanged and unscathed. After all, Jesus said, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away” (Mark 13:31). After looking at the evidence, one can say without a doubt that, yes, the Bible is truly God’s Word.
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Well I suppose in a similar instance, this person believes in Boeing but cannot believe in the operation manual because it was written by engineers, not pilots. 🙂
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“All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.”
2 Timothy 3:16-17 NASB -
The Roman Catholic Church is a good example of man discarding God’s inspired words and works through other men. Man is God’s creation and God will interact with man as God see’s fit. If you discard the scriptures as many have done, what are you left with? Billions and billions of gods of the mind. On the day we are called to give an account, we can hardly say to the JUDGE of all creation, sorry we never knew.
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How could someone believes in God when he doesn’t believed in his written words?
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John 1:1ff.
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I’m sending my mom all your wonderful comments, stories and scriptures. Thank you all!
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I’d advise them to sturdy bible prophecies and see which ones were full filled and how. It’s mind blowing. A true searcher for the truth looks for evidence and goes wherever it points. The Book speaks for itself. What are the chances of someone speaking with specific particularity into the future of things not yet in existence and then seeing that very thing happen exactly as was foretold.
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Interesting how the skeptic is skeptical about everything except his own skepticism.
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If our Heavenly Father Jehovah God (Yahweh Elohim Allah) is omnipotent, and He is all-powerful, and He can do anything, and He has NO limits, then why would He need human beings to write down His words when He could have done it Himself? If our Heavenly Father Jehovah God (Yahweh Elohim Allah) truly has a problem with sins and transgressions, then He should speak directly to people today on this issue, as opposed to condemning homosexuality in His communications with the prophet Moses Levi (1593 B.C. – 1473 B.C.) (as found in the Pentateuch-Torah and the Mosaic Law of 1513 B.C.) and the prophet Muhammad Banu Hashim Quraysh (Abū al-Qāsim Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib ibn Hāshim) (570 – 630) (as found in the Quran-Koran (609 – 632)) many years ago.
Our Lord and Savior even Jesus Christ Judah (8 B.C. – 33 A.D.) never wrote about the issue of sins and transgressions (John 8: 1 – 59 (1 – 11)), and the apostle Paul (Saul Benjamin) (3 – 67) only gave his personal opinions on the subject in his writings (epistles and letters) in which he personally condemned sinners and transgressors.
If God truly exists and the Lord still lives and reigns over us, and the issue of sinning and transgressing is of such importance today to God, then the Lord should speak about this issue directly us today, or at least to the prophet Russell Marion Nelson Senior (1924 – ) and/or to the prophet Stephen Mark Veazey (1957 – ) and tell humanity exactly what the Lord’s view on sins and transgressions are today. -
It is like believing that the Burj Khalifa is the tallest building in the world without seeing it (in person or in any media), knowing its height, knowing how its height compares with other buildings across the world, without ever hearing anything about it apart from the fact that there is a building called the Burj Khalifa that exists.
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Say nothing. You said that they don’t believe in God.
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